Third Person's POV
Bright was half awake when he heard Win's voice. It has been 30 minutes since he passed out and was sent back to his room.
"How is he?"
"He's still sleeping. The doctors said it was due to fatigue. He also said Bright has been experiencing insomnia for the past 2 years. He gave him some sleeping pills so Bright won't be awake till tomorrow morning. You can go home. I'll tend to him for the time being." Oliver explains and Win's eyes go back to Bright.
He could feel his stares. Bright can feel him and the hand that held him was the coldest one. Win's hand was cold as ice. Bright barely flinched from feeling that cold skin on his once the pills started kicking in his system.
"Thank you." Win bowed his head and his eyes caught the two on his way out. "Danilo, Hiro, can we talk?"
"Yeah, let's do that outside." Danilo spoke.
"Okay, then, phi, we'll go ahead. I'll come back tomorrow to visit Bright." Hiro said while waving his hand to Oliver and Gael.
"Thank you. Drive safely." Gael said while Oliver waves his hand.
- - - - -
The three went out of the room and Win started the conversation, while taking the walk down to the parking area.
"Thank you, Hiro, Danilo. I know it's pretty messed up right now and I don't even know if I can fix this but I'm glad you two were his friends."
"We were friends too, back when we were all in the same neighborhood." Hiro adds.
"You're right..." Win's voice suddenly changed its tone.
"Man, it's been like what? 2 years?" Hiro enthusiastically said but Danilo was not having any of it and by the looks of it, he's pissed.
"Three..." Win said.
"How are you?" Hiro once again asked.
There was a pause in his end but Win answered him right after. "I'm okay, compared to what Bright went through, I'm okay."
"Don't say that. We all know you are not okay. It was hard for you too. Letting him go that day..." Hiro held his arm for a while.
"I'm sorry... You two had to take a stand for me. It was selfish of me to think about what I think was best for Bright but I guess I was never on the right path to give him the best. Look at where we are." There goes his sad voice and to Danilo, he had enough.
What he saw earlier to Bright was the first time. He didn't think of it too much but somehow, after all those lies they made up to hide the truth, this was his breaking point.
Win had a chance but he didn't take it and that's what pissed him off.
"Win, can I ask you something?" Danilo asked and Win just nodded as an answer. "Do you still want him back? Do you still love Bright?"
Their steps stopped for a moment and the two waited for his answer. "Till the end, Dan. Until someone takes my life from my own hands. I will always love him and want to be beside him."
"Then, why don't you make things right this time? It's been years. Can you give Bright the life you once promised him?" Danilo's voice was solid. He's trying to wake some senses in Win's mind because everything is so messed up. "Running away won't solve this. You did that in the first place and look where you are right now? Back to square one."
"You know I want to. But I don't think he wan—"
"Try. There's nothing wrong with trying to work things out again. He just needs the truth, the right reason and explanation to why you left him." His eyes never left Win's. "I know I don't have the right to know but at least give him that. Explain everything to Bright."
"I want to. But I can't force him now. He's suffering more and more, just because he's slowly regaining his memories."
"Isn't that what we all want him to do? We all want him to regain his memories. Not because we were there for him through his recovery, doesn't mean he remembers everything about us." Annoyance grew inside Danilo and it took seconds for him to grab Win by his collar. "We had to share our side of the stories too for him to remember us, our friendship. It was hard in the beginning but days went by and he was slowly opening to us."
It caught him off guard and the next thing he knew Hiro was pulling Danilo's hand away from him.
He stood there, quiet and unmoved.
Win heard Hiro's voice and his eyes focused on the concrete pavement below him.
"We all know that you made that decision on your own, but Bright also deserves the same amount or more, if there's left in you, that love you both shared. You were both in love. Isn't that enough for you to make the right choice this time?"
Win's eyes started tearing up again, tears flowed down his pale face and landed on the pavement. Hiro and Danilo heard him and once again, they went silent.
"Love will never be enough. Everything is not about rainbows and butterflies, look what happened to us, when all I thought love was enough..."
But they were right.
They were always right and none of his decisions were right.
He aggressively wipes those tears away, trying to hide the fact that he cried again when remembered Bright hates seeing him cry.
Danilo walked straight to Win and started walking the senses out of him. "Why are you always downgrading yourself? You're already given a chance to make things right this time and yet you're all negative. This and that, you're only proving to us that you never really did love Bright to fix things."
Hiro pulls Danilo away from Win. "Danilo... Let him decide on his own... He made a decision to leave that time, maybe this time he'll make things right. We can't force him to be in Bright's life after what happened. But that doesn't mean you have to keep hiding the truth from him. Bright deserves the truth. Do it for him. Not for you. For him. Think of him." He patted his shoulder and proceeded to pull Danilo away from Win. "We'll go ahead. Drive safely."
Win nods as a response and is left alone in the parking lot. Slowly, he took those heavy feet back to his car and stared at his phone.
A single photo that reminds him of the old love they shared. The only photo he kept in spite of his decision of letting Bright go.
It was the photo of him and Bright right after his soccer match against Win's college.
He decided to wait for him at the exit of the gymnasium because Bright wanted to celebrate their victory together with his teammates.
But along with that celebration, it was the same night he asked Bright to have dinner just by the two of them and right after that, he confessed to the younger that he likes him.
This was that photo.
A happy Win and a very serious Bright who apparently doesn't believe any of the words he just said to him.
And right after that night, Win was consistent.
He made lunches for Bright if he had a chance, ate breakfast with him, waited for him until the last class he had, made sure everything he needed was in his reach.
He made everything for Bright to believe his actions and feelings were genuine. Even asking for Oliver's blessing of him courting Bright.
Win gave every assurance Bright needed and soon after a year of courting, Bright said I love you.
Everything was perfect. Back then.
Can't he just sleep through all of this and wake up right before he asks Bright to marry him? That way he can prevent everything that has happened to him. Or even if it was inevitable, at least he had a chance to change the outcome for Bright not to suffer...
But this wasn't a dream he could just wake up and forget everything that has happened the moment he wakes up.
Dazed, his phone starts ringing and there he saw Bright's name popping out of the screen.
[02.24.2024]